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Amtrak (United States National Railroad Passenger Corporation) And VIA Named Passenger Railway Services

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Amtrak is the United States National Railroad Passenger Corporation. VIA is a similar organisation in Canada.

Many of Amtrak and VIA's long distance passenger railway services have names, including the following. This list is almost certainly not complete.

Name	Route	Operator	Comments
Adirondack	Montreal, QC - Hudson River Valley - New York City, NY	Amtrak	Named after the Adirondack Mountains.
Auto Train	Lorton, VA - Sanford, FL	Amtrak	Possibly a motorail service, carrying cars (autos) as well as passengers?
California Zephyr	Chicago, IL - Denver, CO - Salt Lake City, UT - Oakland/San Francisco, CA	Amtrak	2,420 miles; two days and nights.
Canadian	Toronto, ON - Vancouver, BC	VIA	The journey of 2,765 miles takes three days and nights.
Capitol Corridor	Reno, NV - Sacramento, CA - San Francisco, CA - San Jose, CA	Amtrak
Capitol Limited	Chicago, IL - Washington, DC	Amtrak
Cardinal	Chicago, IL - Washington, DC	Amtrak
Carolinian/Piedmont	Charlotte, NC - Raleigh, NC - New York City, NY	Amtrak
City of New Orleans	Chicago, IL - New Orleans, LA	Amtrak	Hence the well-known song of the same name.
Clockers	New York City, NY - Philadelphia, PA	Amtrak
Coast Starlight	Los Angeles, CA - Oakland, CA - Portland, OR - Seattle, WA	Amtrak
Crescent	New Orleans, LA - Birmingham, AL - Atlanta, GA - Washington, DC - New York City, NY	Amtrak	Passes through twelve states and the District Of Columbia.
Desert Wind	Los Angeles, CA - Las Vegas, NV - Salt Lake City, UT - Chicago, IL	Amtrak	Ceased operation in May 1997.
Empire Builder	Chicago, IL - St Paul, MN - Spokane, WA - Portland, OR/Seattle, WA	Amtrak	2,200 miles. Part of the route skirts round the southern edge of Glacier National Park in Montana.
Empire Service	New York City, NY - Albany, NY - Niagara Falls, NY	Amtrak	New York State's nickname is the Empire State.
Ethan Allen Express	New York City, NY - Rutland, VT	Amtrak	Named after the leader of Vermont's Green Mountain Boys during the American War Of Independence.
Heartland Flyer	Fort Worth, TX - Oklahoma City, OK	Amtrak
Hiawatha Service	Chicago, IL - Milwaukee, WI	Amtrak
Hudson Bay	Churchill, MB - Winnipeg, MB
Illini	Carbondale, IL - Chicago, IL	Amtrak
International	Chicago, IL - Toronto, ON	Amtrak
Kentucky Cardinal	Chicago, IL - Indianapolis, IN - Jeffersonville, IN	Amtrak
Keystone Service	Harrisburg, PA - Philadelphia, PA - New York City, NY	Amtrak	Pennsylvania's nickname is the Keystone State.
Lake Shore Limited	Chicago, IL - Albany, NY - New York City, NY	Amtrak
Little Bear	Cochrane, ON - Moosoonee, ON	Ontario Northland Railway
Maple Leaf	New York City, NY - Toronto, ON	Amtrak
Metroliner	New York City, NY - Washington, DC	Amtrak
NortheastDirect	Boston, MA - Newport News, VA	Amtrak
Northlander	Cochrane, ON - North Bay, ON - Toronto, ON	Ontario Northland Railway
Ocean	Halifax, NS - New Brunswick - Montreal, QC	VIA
Pacific Surfliner	San Diego, CA - San Luis Obispo, CA	Amtrak	Previously called San Diegans.
Pennsylvanian	Chicago, IL - Pittsburgh, PA - Philadelphia, PA	Amtrak
Pere Marquette	Chicago, IL - Grand Rapids, MI	Amtrak	Named after Father Marquette, an early European explorer.
San Diegans	Los Angeles, CA - San Diego, CA	Amtrak
San Joaquins	San Francisco, CA - Bakersfield, CA - Southern California	Amtrak	The route passes through the San Joaquin Valley.
Silver Star	Miami, FL - Jacksonville, FL - Savannah, GA - New York City, NY	Amtrak
Southwest Chief	Chicago, IL - Kansas City, MO - Albuquerque, NM - Los Angeles, CA	Amtrak	2,230 miles through eight states.
Sunset Limited	Los Angeles, CA - San Antonio, TX - New Orleans, LA - Jacksonville, FL - Orlando, FL (and possibly on to Miami, FL)	Amtrak
Texas Eagle	Chicago, IL - San Antonio, TX	Amtrak
Three Rivers	Chicago, IL - Philadelphia, PA - New York City, NY	Amtrak	Presumably named after the Hudson River, the Susquehanna River and one other river - the Allegheny, the Delaware or the Wabash, maybe?
Twilight Shoreliner	Boston, MA - Newport News, VA	Amtrak
Vermonter	Montreal, QC - St. Albans, VT - Burlington, VT - New York City, NY - Washington, DC	Amtrak

External Links

Amtrak (National Railroad Passenger Corporation) official web site

VIA Rail

[VIA Rail's alternative URL http://www.viarail.com appears to no longer be available. When I tested it on 16-Jan-99 it failed with a "no DNS entry" error, implying that the address no longer exists. However, it is still listed on the Amnesi domain name search engine, so the problem may be temporary.]

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Most recently modified 3-Apr-03